Andrea Casali and James Byres: The Mutual Perception of the Roman and British Art Markets in the Eighteenth Century PAOLO COEN Abstract: This article analyses two art dealers active in the eighteenth century. Andrea Casali started out as a painter and later became also a dealer, and was active in both fields during his twenty-five-year stay in England. The Scotsman James Byres, having tried unsuccessfully to become a painter, spent much of his life in Rome, where he was known above all as a cicerone and as an art dealer, selling mainly antiquities and Old Master paintings. The two men’s careers illustrate the complexity of artistic relations between the Papal State and Britain in the era of the GrandTour. Keywords: History of taste, art market, eighteenth-century painting, Andrea Casali, James Byres, transmission of culture, history of art criticism It is widely acknowledged that the study of the art market embraces not merely economics but also art history, aesthetics and culture in general. This explains the increasingly interdisciplinary approach that has emerged over the last few years, in both scholarly and more popular, journalistic writing, concentrating on extending our knowledge of a number of specific points and promoting analysis of possible research methods. 1 It is now clear that the market is a viable and valuable point of access to an understanding of discrepancies, points of contact and mutual influences among specific cultures, not least the links between eighteenth-century Italy and Great Britain. Two key figures represent this process with singular clarity: Andrea Casali and James Byres. The Roman painter Andrea Casali was already considered a highly talented artist in his own lifetime. 2 The protégé of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, 3 a refined and influential collector, Casali soon began to emerge in the competitive environment of the capital. In 1725 he won first prize in the drawing competition run by the Accademia di San Luca, which shortly afterwards elected him a member. 4 Four years later, in 1729, Pope Benedict XIII awarded him the Knight’s Cross for his frescos in the church of San Sisto Vecchio 5 – an enormous social and professional honour, placing him alongside Bernini, Trevisani and, some years later, Vasi and Piranesi. It is not difficult to see why Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies Vol. 34 No. 3 (2011) © 2010 British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX42DQ, UK, and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.